homemade crushed freezer tomatoes

i’ve been waiting all summer long…

all i wanted was a red or yellow tomato.

is that to much to ask for?

i didn’t just want one. i wanted a lot. i wanted to store them. i wanted to freeze them. i wanted to have ripe sweet tomatoes in the middle of winter.

i wanted to not open a can. i wanted to do it myself. i just wanted them.

so i boiled water and got to work. the rug rats helped. they scored, they peeled and they blended. they washed basil and they prepped baggies.

i’m finally looking forward to winter…and not giving anyone botulism.

homemade crushed freezer tomatoes

• tomatoes
• boiling water
• basil
• sandwich bags
• blender

1. to prep: get a large pot and fill with water. bring to a boil. set up an ice bath too (using cold water is ok, no need for ice). 
2. score all the tomatoes. with a knife, make an x on the bottom of each.
3. carefully add the scored tomatoes to the boiling water for about 30 seconds to a minute depending on how big the tomato is. you will watch the skin separate from each tomato.
4. carefully remove tomatoes from boiling water and place in ice bath. when tomatoes cool, slide as much skin as you can off. this can get messy.
5. because some of our tomatoes where huge we cut them into chunks. add to a blender and pulse a couple of time.
6. measure out 2 cups and add to a sandwich bag with a couple leaves of basil. squeeze out the air, lay flat and freeze.

as you can see above, the last batch we made we liquified. we made yellow tomato soup (recipe to come). blend to your desired consistency, we like chunks of tomato in our sauce so we pulsed 2-3 times.